


Out

by SquigglyAverageJoe



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Genre: I’m so sorry this is so late, Multi, Power Outage, Snow, The reason this is late is in part due to a power outage, Winter, funny enough, that’s hilarious but also not.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27753091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquigglyAverageJoe/pseuds/SquigglyAverageJoe
Summary: For the Four Swords Secret Santa thing on Tumblr! I was assigned wowanothergotdamnedartist—this was... really difficult to do, and I experienced atonof technical issues, so I’m really sorry it’s late, but here it finally is! I hope you like it!
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wowanothergotdamnedartist](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=wowanothergotdamnedartist).



This, Vio thinks, looking over the closet full of movies they have, because they’re resisting the rise of streaming services and clinging to CDs for the aesthetic, has got to be the stupidest tradition they have.

Granted, it’s difficult to have traditions, because none of them really have anything in common and despite the fact that they all like to be around each other, it’s difficult to find anything they have in common that they will all participate in. Red had tried to get them all into cooking, but it was difficult to cram all of them into the kitchen, and then there was the fact that Vaati didn’t eat a whole lot of meat, and Blue always accidentally burnt his food to a crisp and Shadow always purposely burnt his food to a crisp because he liked the taste, and at some point, it wasn’t a good meal or a bonding experience, but just sweating in the kitchen with your eyes watering from the smoke as you got elbowed in the ribs by the ninth time by the same person, and probably a seventh from another person. Once, they all tried to get into reading for Vio and while Vaati had loved it and Shadow had realized he was good at writing horror stories and Red could make really sweet sounding poems, Blue struggled with spelling and Erune really wasn’t even interested too much in literature, and that wasn’t even mentioning how often Vaati and Vio would clash over their own opinions on novels.

No one had enough remote controllers to play video games, and board games would literally tear them apart (Vaati was a pro at Monopoly, and Vio was about eighty five percent sure that Erune cheated to seem as good as she was, but he had no evidence and she wouldn’t admit it—everyone else always lost.) which didn’t leave them with a whole lot of group activities. It was difficult, to remain as close as they were, and reservations for six people were hardly romantic.

Instead of group activities, it was usually just a whole lot of one on one activities, or sometimes it’d be three, four—someone always got left out for one thing, due to a conflicting schedule or literally anything. But this, he sighs, looking over the thousands of lackluster movies they have, in this dusty old closet where they keep an old box for a crock pot they need to throw out and some dish towels they’ve never used and what _might_ be a pillow case if he cared enough to examine it, _this_ is one of the few times where all of them would do something together. They used to watch movies together in high school and it was still chaotic and it had been different, but a lot of the times, once Vio popped in a movie and settled on the couch, they all got a chance to unwind and bond and it was like those moments back in high school.

It had been nice—back then, Vio had been stressing over his sexuality and his feelings towards his friends and his relationships with those friends—and he had been dealing with this weird argument thing with Shadow that would occasionally resurface when neither of them expected it, and he had been studying nonstop—but he had always carved out some time, no matter what, to go over to Red’s house and sit on the couch next to Blue and smack him with a pillow once or twice, and watch a movie with his friends. It had been a relief, and even now (and even though he still preferred literature to movies, in all honesty) he loves sitting down to watch a movie with his friends.

But he can’t _do_ that unless he finds a movie for them to watch.

He has no idea where to start with all the DVDs. He skips over the Disney movies (Erune wouldn’t mind, Red would sing along to all of the songs, Shadow would try to act like he wasn’t enjoying it but would actually secretly enjoy it, but Vaati would probably be bored out of his skull and Blue would make fun of it the entire time while he sat back and watched _Cinderella_ for the thousandth time only because he hadn’t been sure what else to pick), thinks about the horror movies, and then finds _it._

He frowns, pulls the case out of the closet, from it’s place beside a Barbie movie and some trashy horror movie and looks it over. “Santa Jaws?” He says aloud.

It’s a mistake—he knows, the minute he says it, that someone is approaching and that someone appears behind him and exclaims, _“Santa Jaws?”_

It’s too late to put it back—and in all honesty here, he doesn’t want to put it back. Why would he? This, this that he is holding is a bad thing, a bad movie, and he loves it. Yes, he’ll regret pulling it out as he watches it, but right now, in this moment, all that comes to mind is screaming laughter from a room so close to him, the moment he left the room, and the weird sort of joy one can only feel in strange, happy moments that somehow seem so few.

Shadow’s grinning ear from ear, his teeth so white, it makes the white shirt he’s in look unclean in comparison—his eyes are wide, he hasn’t even finishing putting on his eyeliner and there’s small marks from when he was putting on his mascara, and goddesses, that _grin._ Vio couldn’t pluck the words he’s just said out of the air and hide them from Shadow, even if he wanted to—but he _doesn’t_ want to.

This movie calls their names in a long forgotten, dusty voice they haven’t heard in a long time—and why would they not answer? “No way!” Shadow exclaims. Vio lets him take it out of his hands, because his excitement is adorable and palpable. “When was the last time we watched this?”

”High school,” Vio says.

”Right. Sophomore year, right?” Vio nods, but Shadow only has eyes on the DVD case in his hand. “Goddesses. This movie...” He looks up at Vio, eyes brimming with nostalgia as if sophomore year in high school was eons ago, a long forgotten, joyous memory, and he’s still grinning. “This movie sucked ass,” he says.

”It did,” Vio says, because really, it did. “You know,” he says. “It _is_ winter.” Shadow’s still smiling. “Never a better time for a holiday movie than winter, right?”

”Yes,” Shadow says, and then hisses out a longer, happy, _“Yesssssss,_ ” that makes him smile. He tosses the DVD case back to Vio. “We _have_ to watch it.”

They will—there’s no way they can’t.

Vaati and Erune arrive at the same time as each other—maybe they came together, it’s hard to tell how they’re greeting him with Shadow laughing like a maniac in the living room. Briefly, they both look kind of concerned, but they’re probably used to his antics at this point, and his laughter was something you just kind of got used to.

Red’s still in the kitchen, a pot of milk on the stove. Vio’s told him to just use the microwave, but it never stops him. “If only we had marshmallows,” he sighs and turns his gaze to the window, dramatically, as if he’ll find them in the freezing evening, right outside their house.

”We can tell Green to buy some,” he says. “When he comes back tomorrow.”

They were all friends with Green, and Green was barely a roommate at this point, since he was always gone on business trips—it might have actually been kind of rude to ask Green to come home tomorrow with a bag of marshmallows.

”But we’re having hot chocolate tonight,” Red says. “What good are the marshmallows gonna be tomorrow?”

He doesn’t know. Red doesn’t seem to mind his silence and stirs the pot. “What movie did you pick?”

”Shadow helped me pick,” he says, and he keeps it at that—it’ll be a surprise. A good surprise, too.

Red frowns, noticing the lack of an answer. “Vio, can you cook the popcorn at least? I always do it wrong.” Last time he made it, there was like, three fully popped kernels and they were somehow burnt. They were still trying to figure out what he did wrong, because Red had done the same thing to every other bag of popcorn in that box before that, so he wasn’t really allowed to make popcorn anymore.

Vio doesn’t really like making popcorn, doesn’t really know why, but he doesn’t burn it, usually, so he just goes ahead and does it.

”It’s so nice that we all get to be together again like this,” Red says. “It’s been awhile.”

It has.

In the living room, Shadow, Blue and Vaati have gotten into an argument about the heater, their voices drift into the kitchen and he can just imagine Erune chilling on the couch and listening. “You can’t turn the house into an oven, Blue, just ‘cause you hate the cold. It’s eighty degrees in here!”

”And twenty two outside!” Blue argues.

Vaati adds, “It’s best to be on the colder side, because sweat can freeze, and then you freeze to death faster.”

”We won’t freeze to death, it’s fine,” Shadow says. “Why am I being the voice of reason? Vio!”

He’s staying out of this one and staying in the kitchen. Red grabs a ladle and some mugs—he doesn’t even like hot chocolate. Vio doesn’t know why he insists on making it every time they have people over—including in the summer. “Why don’t you just use the microwave?” He asks again.

”This tastes better!” He insists. “And I can make more for more people, instead of like, one cup at a time.”

They’ve stopped arguing by the time they come out to the living room, with their popcorn and their hot chocolate—Vio doesn’t even really like hot chocolate, always manages to burn his tongue pretty bad, but he can’t just say no to Red when he makes hot chocolate. It’s a nice gesture, he guesses.

”What movie?” Erune asks, settling into the couch—she’s wearing the ugliest sweater Vio has ever seen in his life, not even like a stylistic type of ugly, and as hideous as it is, it does look pretty comfy so he can’t really judge.

Shadow looks over at her, grins—this doesn’t answer her question. They get situated on the couch in moments, Erune’s leaned up on the side, Red’s next to her while she dinks her hot chocolate and he’s laughing about something, and Shadow’s next to him, and Vio’s next to him while he fights Blue over the blanket they’re sharing, and one of his legs is on top of his, but whatever. Vaati sits at the end. “Is anyone gonna hit play?”

...The remote’s on the coffee table. Vio doesn’t want to get up. There’s a moment of silence before Shadow sighs, manages to sit up, grumbles something beneath his breath and then flops back onto the couch and has the movie playing before anyone can do so much as blink.

They don’t get very far.

The TV hasn’t even been on for a minute before it goes black—and it’s not just the TV. The lamp in the corner shuts off. The shaking of the washing machine they have in the laundry room, basically in the kitchen, inches away from the dining room, has faded into silence and the heater is no longer on.

”...This is a terrible movie,” Vaati says.

“It’s a power outage,” Vio says.

”I... I know that, it was a joke...” They turn to look at each other, but it’s a little hard to do that in the dark.

”Well,” Vio says, but that’s it—it’s all he can say, or he can just curse, but that’s not gonna turn the power back on. “...Guess we’re _not_ watching a movie tonight.”

Red and Shadow manage to tackle the candles just fine—the living room’s dim now, lit by a handful of candles, and now everything smells like pumpkin spice, s’mores, clean linen, strawberries, charcoal, _and_ some weird scent that just says magical—Vio doesn’t know what that means, and it doesn’t smell bad, but it doesn’t mix well with pumpkin spice, but how else are they gonna see?

They look over their board game on the coffee table—they can’t watch a movie right now, but they have to do something, right? They’re all together.

Vaati’s frowning. “...I don’t think Jenga’s supposed to have only three pieces.”

Blue reaches over and shakes the box—and there’s only three pieces rattling around in there, yeah. Probably’d make Jenga boring, he thinks—onto the next possible board game.

Erune’s looking down, bored out of her skull. “What movie did you guys choose anyway?” She asks, while they open a worn cardboard box, a game missing pieces, something to pass the time.

Shadow sighs. “ _Santa Jaws.”_

The world seems to stop, grow quiet. Everyone turns to him and Shadow. Erune’s smiling. “You mean like, that movie from high school?”

”You mean that _bad_ movie from high school?” Vaati says.

Red laughs. “So _that’s_ why Shadow was laughing earlier.”

”Wow,” Blue says. “...That movie was terrible.”

”It was,” Vio says—it didn’t mean they enjoyed it any less. Red leans back onto his heels, rises so he’s standing and sighs, looking out the window. When Vio follows his gaze, there’s white in the air. “Oh no.”

Red’s grinning. “It’s snowing.”

Blue looks up at him. “You want to go outside or something?”

”No—it’s wet and cold. It just looks pretty.”

It _does_ look pretty. Shadow isn’t really looking, too busy staring at the flames calmly on their candle wicks, and Vaati and Erune are both looking over the board games trying to find something for them all to do, but it is pretty—and cold and wet, like Red said. No way Vio wants to go out there.

Blue rubs at his arms. “It’s getting cold—when do you think the power’s gonna come back on?”

Vio shrugs. “Could be weeks,” he says.

Blue looks at him flatly—this is their fourth staring contest today. Vio wonders if he and Blue just really need to find something else to do with their time, instead of staring intensely into each other’s eyes. “It’s probably just gonna be a few hours,” he says. “Probably be back on in the morning at least.”

”Too bad we couldn’t watch _Santa Jaws_ though,” Red says. “I miss that movie. We used to watch it, like, every year.”

”Best part of winter,” Shadow says.

”I just remember how hard we were laughing,” Erune smiles. “Shadow kept roasting it every three minutes. Vaati laughed at how terrible the jokes were, we all gave the reviews five stars and said it was the best movie ever.”

”We had it after finals, I think,” Vaati says, and then, “No, right before finals, when everyone was stressed.”

”Or at least Vaati and I were stressed,” Vio says.

”Yeah, because you studied for twenty hours straight like a _nerd_ ,” Shadow says. “I only studied for eighteen hours straight!”

He snorts, Shadow looks at him, grins.

”It’s getting cold,” Blue says again. “I’m gonna go find a hoodie in my room or something.” He wanders off, disappearing somewhere away from candlelight.

”Getting to work’s going to be rough tomorrow,” Erune says. “In the snow. During a power outage.”

”I imagine making coffee would be difficult without electricity,” Vaati says.

”No,” Erune says. “It’s fine. If I set the cafe on fire, it’ll make the coffee somehow. It’ll be fine. My problem’s solved—and it won’t be cold!”

This makes sense to him.

They go through all the board games before they realize that the pieces are missing in a lot of them and no one actually wants to play a board game—it would have been useful to have this information before they grabbed all the board games in the cupboard and looked them over. “How’d you even find _Santa Jaws_?” Red asks.

”DVD,” Vio says. “Shadow and I found it—and we decided we had to watch it.” But they can’t now.

”It was a bad movie anyway,” Vaati says.

Shadow looks at him. “Shut the hell your mouth, it’s a cinematic masterpiece,” he says.

”You said that about _Cars!_ ”

”And it’s still true!”

”Where did Blue go?” Red asks. “Shouldn’t he be back by now? ...I’m gonna go find him, maybe he needs help.”

”Finding a hoodie?” Shadow calls after him, but he’s already disappeared into the hallway. He sits down on the couch. “...These candles are giving me a headache?”

”I can’t stand pumpkin spice,” Vaati says.

Erune adds, “I don’t know what _that_ candle is—“ She points at one, the magical one, whatever that meant. “—but I hate it and didn’t want to complain until _just_ now.”

”Yeah,” Vio says. “Red likes pumpkin spice things.”

”But why?” Shadow asks. “Pumpkins are...” He trails off, tries again, “Pumpkins are...” He doesn’t finish that sentence—Vio supposes he’ll never know what a pumpkin is.

”We need to get Red some good candles,” Erune says. “We’ll buy him good ones—like... um...”

”I mean, they’re candles,” Vaati says. “I don’t think candles can be amazing.”

”No,” Vio says. “Candles are, like, good.”

”...They’re candles.”

”Are we so bored right now that we’re arguing about candles?” Shadow asks. “Is that what’s happening?” It is. “Goddesses, we need to find something else to do. I’m consulting Buzzfeed.”

”No,” Vaati says, and then, more insistent, “ _No._ Shadow, every time you go on Buzzfeed, you end up disappearing for like, three weeks and then you come back and you’re still laughing about dogs.”

”They were _singing!_ ” Shadow says. “I’m looking at the internet, and we’re gonna find something to do in a power outage.”

”But the internet or Buzzfeed? I mean, Buzzfeed is _on_ the internet, I guess, but like—just the internet in general, or are you going to get swept up in the quizzes?”

”Yes.”

Erune frowns. “I don’t think that’s an answer, Shadow.”

Meanwhile, they slowly disappeared in their house one by one. Vio gets to his feet. “Neither of them have come back, I’m gonna go make sure they didn’t like, combust.”

“Have fun, Vio!” Shadow calls after him, like he’s not just going into a room nearby to check that Blue and Red are still breathing and everything.

The moment he enters the hallway with all their bedrooms, he hears their voices, but can’t discern any of the words they’re saying. They get somewhat louder as he approaches his and Blue’s room, so he must be getting closer.

He hears laughter—Blue and Red are sitting on the floor, a shoebox in front of them and Blue’s using the light from his phone screen to look into it’s contents. “We were wondering where you guys were,” he says.

”Remember when you were helping me with that scrap book?” Red asks. “Found all the photos we never pasted.” He takes a step forward—he recognizes some of them and knows when they were taken near immediately, looks down at it slowly.

”I almost forgot about all of it,” he says—but it’s not even almost, because he has absolutely forgotten up until this exact moment in time. “...How’d you find that?”

”I was trying to steal that blanket you have beneath your bed,” he says.

”You literally have an identical one on yours.”

”Yeah, but yours is better.”

”It’s the same, just different colors.”

”Yours is better.” He feels stupid because he also thinks Blue’s is better than his. “But I found this too. Goddesses—remember when Shadow was in the photography club?”

He had been good at photography, Vio thinks—but cameras were super expensive and photography classes were always jam packed—slowly, Shadow got into other hobbies and lost most of his focus on photography, but he had been willing to help red with this in their senior year of high school. No one had taken it seriously, and it was more of a chance for them to hang out and do useless arts and crafts.

And it almost paid off—it obviously didn’t _really_ because Vio has a shoe box full of the photos for it beneath his bed, and you kind of needed them for a scrap book. Vio pulls one out. “Isn’t this from the first time we watched _Santa Jaws_?”

Red looks over. “Oh my godddesses, it _is_!” Red laughs, loud and bright. “That was so long ago—weren’t you and Shadow fighting then?”

They had fought a lot during high school—things were cool now. “I also thought Vaati was kind of stuck up.”

”He _is_ kind of stuck up,” Blue says. “We just like him now.”

”I thought Erune was annoying,” Red says. “And now I love hanging out with her.”

”What the hell was even with high school?” Vio asks. “Now I’m not even sure it happened, it sounds like a fever dream.”

”Definitely,” Red says. “Definitely a fever dream. Never happened.”

When they all go back into the living room, the first thing Vio hears is, “Look, it’s all fun and games until a nine pound cheesecake hits you at terminal velocity,” and it’s a lot funnier out of context than it is in. Erune’s chilling by the window, looking out into the snow, glowing in the moonlight. Vaati and Shadow are sitting on the couch, faces serious like they’re debating philosophy, but in reality, they’re just taking a Buzzfeed quiz on Shadow’s phone. Shadow looks up when they enter, “Oh, you guys didn’t disappear off the face of the planet.”

”That’s good,” Erune says. “You guys are alive.”

”And we decided high school was a fever dream,” Blue adds.

”I don’t think it was a fever dream,” Vaati says. “Because I can remember drinking excessive amounts of lemon water way too clearly, and every day, I choked on a seed, and I don’t think my brain can make a dream that realistic.”

”I remember pouring sugar packets into his lemon water to make lemonade,” Shadow says. “And every time he looked absolutely pissed, but I never ended up getting like, murdered, so I think it _was_ a fever dream.”

”You poured six sugar packets into my water!” He says. “It was more sugar than there was lemon, more sugar than there was water!”

”And it was hilarious.”

”No, it was lackluster lemonade.”

The lights flicker on. The heater kicks on. Blue stares at the light on the ceiling. “...I think the power’s back on.”

”Thank the goddesses, my phone was about to die, I have like, thirteen apps open at the same time.” Shadow gets up to charge his phone, still doing his Buzzfeed quiz.

Erune looks over at Vio. “What were you guys even doing?”

”Sacrificing porcelain dolls to the ghost in the attic so she doesn’t consume our souls while we sleep,” Red says. “Anyway, now that the power’s back on...” He smiles, happy, bouncing kinda on his heels. “Can we watch Santa Jaws?”

There’s a beat of silence before it’s a mad dash to get back to their seats on the couch—no one does anything beforehand. Forget the snacks, forget the blankets. Shadow grabs the remote off the coffee table and starts the movie. A wave of nostalgia rushes over Vio as he settles onto the couch—high school was a nightmare, a fever dream, and just a distant memory all rolled into one, but something about this terrible, terrible movie is so familiar, he can’t help but love it with all his heart.

Almost as much as he loves everyone in this room.


End file.
